Plot Summary

Chapter 1:

• Sets the stage 
• Speaks of the incident in which Lily accidently killed her mother when she was a little girl
• Talks about the love Lily has for her mother and her desire to know whether the love was once returned
• The relationship between Lily and her father, T. Ray, is revealed as well as how Lily handles herself in certain situations.  
• Starts setting off in Sylvan at the very beginning of the summer of 1964 during the Civil Rights era, which is an extremely controversial period for people of different races
• Lily and Rosaleen get arrested because Rosaleen stood up to white people.

Chapter 2:

• Lily and Rosaleen traveling to Tiburon, South Carolina

Chapter 3:

• Lily and Rosaleen make it to Tiburon
• Obtain the Boatwright sisters’ address
• Lily buys a newspaper to make sure that she and Rosaleen aren’t in it

Chapter 4:

• Rosaleen and Lily go to the Boatwright’s home
• August offers them a place to stay and work
• Lily discovers the wailing wall

Chapter 5:

• Lily and Rosaleen meet the other sisters, May and June
• They begin to learn more about May’s special condition and Augusts’ personality
• Lily begins learning to work for August
• May and Rosaleen start to bond
• Lily overhears June and August talking about her, they know she is lying
• August  takes Lily to the beehives
• August tells Lily about April
• Rosaleen feels like Lily doesn’t love her as much as she loves August

Chapter 6:

·         Lily and Rosaleen meet Neil and learn about his relationship with June

·         The Daughters of Mary are introduced to Lily and Rosaleen

·         They join in the ceremony and hear the story of the black Mary statue

·         Lily passes out and wants to touch the statue’s heart

Chapter 7:

• Lily meets Zachary Taylor
• Lily and Zach become friends
• Lily senses that June doesn’t care for her
• Lily and Rosaleen begin to settle in to life with the sisters, they have been there for two weeks
• June and Neil get in an argument about marriage
• Rosaleen moves into May’s room
• June and Neil get in another argument
• Zach gives Lily a notebook to write in

Chapter 8:

• Augusts’ birthday
• August talks to Lily about things that she loves
• August tells Lily how she came to have the black Mary statue
• Lily learns more from August about bees
• August tells Lily why her house is pink
• Lily goes with August to beehives to see the queen
• Lily goes with Zach to Mr. Forrest’s office and meets him
• Lily calls her father from Mr. Forrest’s law firm
• Lily goes to the black Mary in the middle of the night and touches the heart carved into her
• June begins to lighten up and gets into a water fight with the other girls
• Lily learns from May that her mother stayed in the honey house
• Lily has a dream in which her mother is a cockroach
• Zach and his friends throw a coke bottle at a man and get arrested while Lily is stuck in his truck
• Everyone except for May is told about Zach being in jail
• August and Lily go to visit him
• May finds out about Zach and goes to the wailing wall

Chapter 10:

• May commits suicide
• They all hold a vigil for May for four days straight
• August finds May’s suicide note
• Zach gets released from jail
• Lily and Rosaleen sleep in May’s room for a while

Chapter 11:

• Everyone in the Boatwright household goes into mourning for a few days
• Lily moves out of May’s room and back to the honey house
• Lily and Rosaleen get to experience Mary Day with the Daughters of Mary
• Zach kisses Lily and gives her his necklace as a promise that one day he will find her and they will be together

Chapter 12:

• Lily finally tells August the story of her mother and finds out that her mother had stayed there before she came back for Lily
• August tells Lily about her mother

Chapter 13:

• Lily becomes depressed and angry at her mother

• The Daughters of Mary finish their celebration
• August gives Lily a box of her mother’s belongings

Chapter 14:

• Rosaleen becomes a registered voter
• June agrees to marry Neil
• Lily overcomes here depression
• Zach gives Lily another notebook
• T. Ray comes to take Lily back home but she stands up to him and stays with the Boatwright sisters
• Lily is happy and loves all eight of her “stand-in” mothers